The Aryavarth Express
Agency (New Delhi): The Labour Bureau, a department under the Ministry of Labour & Employment, regularly compiles the Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) based on retail prices gathered from 317 markets across 88 industrially significant centers in India. The CPI-IW is calculated for 88 centers and for the entire nation, with the results typically released on the last working day of the following month. This press release provides an overview of the CPI-IW for December 2023.
In December 2023, the All-India CPI-IW experienced a slight decrease of 0.3 points, bringing it to 138.8 (one hundred thirty-eight point eight). On a one-month percentage change basis, it decreased by 0.22 percent compared to the previous month, compared to a decrease of 0.15 percent during the same period the previous year.
The primary factor contributing to the current index’s decline was the Food & Beverages group, accounting for a 0.45 percentage point decrease in the total change. Various items such as Rice, Poultry/Chicken, Mustard Oil, Apple, Banana, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Capsicum, Carrot, French-Beans, Green Coriander Leaves, Ginger, Onion, Potato, Tomato, Peas, Radish, and Electricity Charges (Domestic) contributed to this decline. However, this decrease was partially offset by items like Wheat, Buffalo Milk, Fresh Fish, Brinjal, Drumstick, Garlic, Lady’s Finger, Sugar White, Cooked Meals, Leaf Tobacco, Pan Finished, Trouser Pant Readymade, Leather Sandal/Chappal/Slippers, Electric Batteries, Employees State Insurance (ESI) Contribution, Tooth Paste/Tooth Powder, Auto-rickshaw/Scooter fare, Bus Fare, and others, which exerted upward pressure on the index.
At the center level, Coimbatore recorded the highest decrease of 4.7 points, followed by Ludhiana with a decrease of 3.2 points. Several other centers registered decreases ranging from 2 to 2.9 points, 1 to 1.9 points, and 0.1 to 0.9 points. In contrast, Solapur recorded the most significant increase of 1.5 points, with other centers showing increases of 1 to 1.4 points and 0.1 to 0.9 points. The indices of three centers remained unchanged.
The year-on-year inflation rate for December stood at 4.91 percent, a slight decline from the previous month’s 4.98 percent and a notable decrease from the 5.50 percent recorded during the same month in the previous year. Food inflation for December was 8.18 percent, up from 7.95 percent the previous month and significantly higher than the 4.10 percent recorded during the same period the previous year.